OFFSIDE VIDEO REVIEW A HOT TOPIC
League officials seem willing to ignore 30-second limit on calling a challenge
To review or not to review?
That’s a dilemma the Ottawa Senators and their faithful have likely been debating over the course of the last 24 hours.
As the Senators prepared to face Connor Mcdavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers here Wednesday night at Rogers Place to close out the western Canadian portion of this road trip, many were still smarting from the disallowed goal in the third period of a 5-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night because of an offside video review.
Only 14 seconds after the Canucks had pulled out to a commanding three-goal lead on the strength of Oscar Fantenberg’s effort from the point, the Senators looked like they could steal momentum back when Vladislav Namestnikov beat Thatcher Demko 14 seconds later on a goal that would have cut the lead to 5-3.
Unfortunately for the Senators, that wasn’t the case because after taking a long look at the replays the NHL’S situation room determined Namestnikov had crossed the blue-line early before taking the pass from Tyler Ennis. As a result, the goal didn’t count and the Canucks went on to a fairly easy victory.
“It’s super frustrating. I’m not a fan of the rule, but it sucks when it happens to you even more,” Ennis said following the loss Tuesday night. “It took away some momentum for sure and it’s a millimetre off, so it’s disappointing.”
A lot of people don’t like the fact video review for the offside was brought in as a coaches’ challenge in the first place. Many don’t appreciate that a goal can be waved off when a player is only millimetres offside in a sport that’s based heavily on speed. In this case, the call was debatable because it was as close as it can get.
The one in Vancouver may have also bothered the Senators because of the amount of time Canucks coach Travis Green was given before challenging for the offside. Most teams have either a monitor or an ipad on their bench to view replays and the head coach is supposed to act quickly if he wants the league to take a second look.
In this case, it seemed like an eternity before Green told the officials he wanted them to go to the league’s headquarters for a decision on this one. Teams aren’t supposed to be able to buy extra time for these calls because the pace of the game is already slowed by stoppages and timeouts, so this should have been done in a split second.
“They have a rule that they don’t enforce and that’s that you have 30 seconds from the time the puck enters the net to call a challenge,” said TSN analyst Ray
Ferraro, who worked the Ottawa-vancouver broadcast. “That one took about two minutes. That can’t be. Do you remember the last faceoff? Where did that go? It just evaporated?
“So they put this rule in for a 30-second review and there’s no rule. I don’t know if you noticed Travis Green saying, ‘Give me one more second, one more second.’ He was doing what every coach does and he was delaying. They all know the rule. They’re all waiting until they get the definitive spike from the video room. The review’s here and it’s not changing.”
Part of the issue is the league has never denied a team a challenge and it certainly doesn’t sound like they’re about to start enforcing the 30 seconds anytime soon. Ferraro isn’t a fan of the review, but he is willing to concede it’s not going to change.
Make no mistake, this is also a hot topic among NHL general managers during their annual March meetings at a sunny locale south of the border. The GMS have held lots of talks about the offside rule because some don’t like the fact it takes away goals that would normally count, and in most cases the decisions are made on a razor-thin margin.
The reality is, even if the goal had counted it may not have made much of a difference. At that point, it certainly felt like the Canucks were well on their way to an easy victory. They took their foot off the gas pedal after pulling out to a 4-0 lead in the first period and allowed the Senators to get up off the mat.
You can discuss the validity of the review for the offside all you want, and there are several people who would like to see it abolished in a league that is trying desperately to get more scoring. But don’t you want the calls to be right? If a mistake is made, this is a chance to correct it and, of course, even then no system is perfect.
Namestnikov was ruled offside, but not by much.
“If it’s offside, it’s not a goal and that’s the way it works,” said coach D.J. Smith. “It works for both teams and it’s a good call by them when it works and it’s a good call by us when it works. I thought that was as close as
I’ve seen one in a long time and I wasn’t sure which way it was going to go.”
Close, but no goal and the debate will rage on.